In 1851, the U.S.-built schooner America outran a fleet of Britain's finest ships around England's Isle of Wight in an international race that became known as America's Cup.

In 1881, American humanitarians Clara Barton and Adolphus Solomons founded the National Red Cross.

In 1911, Leonardo da Vinci's "Mona Lisa" was stolen from the Louvre Museum in Paris. It was recovered four months later.

In 1922, Michael Collins, a founder of the Irish Republican Army and a key figure in Ireland's independence movement, was assassinated by political opponents.

In 1968, Pope Paul VI arrived in Colombia, becoming the first pontiff to visit South America.

In 1986, Kerr-McGee Corp. agreed to pay the estate of nuclear industry worker Karen Silkwood more than $1 million, ending a 10-year legal battle waged by her family over her exposure to radioactive materials at the company's Oklahoma plant.

In 1995, U.S. Rep. Mel Reynolds, D-Ill., was convicted of having sex with an underage girl, leading to his resignation later in the year.

In 2004, two masked robbers stole Edvard Munch's "The Scream" and another painting from the Munch Museum in Oslo, Norway. "The Scream" was stolen once before, 10 years earlier, but was recovered within three months.

In 2005, the last Jewish settlers moved peacefully out of the Gaza Strip after carrying the Torah scrolls down the main street of Netzarim, last of 21 settlements to be evacuated.

In 2006, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration decided to make the "morning-after" contraceptive pill known as Plan B available without a prescription to people 18 and older.

In 2008, six Americans arrested in China for protesting Chinese rule over Tibet were given 10-day detention sentences.

In 2009, the Afghanistan presidential election was marred by fraud and intimidation, a watchdog group said. The Free and Fair Elections Foundation of Afghanistan said its 7,000 observers reported stuffed ballot boxes, voting by proxy and other irregularities. In a slow vote count, Hamid Karzai appeared assured of re-election.

In 2010, in the wake of Australia's first parliamentary election in 70 years in which no party won a majority, the ruling Labor Party and Julia Gillard, the nation's first female prime minister, retained power and set about forming a new government.

In 2011, the Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. National Memorial in Washington opened to the public on the anniversary of the civil rights leader's 1963 landmark "I Have a Dream" speech. The $120 million memorial, 25 years in the making, is on a 4-acre site on the National Mall.

Also in 2011, Libya rebel leaders pondered whether one of three Moammar Gadhafi sons captured in the Tripoli takeover should be tried at home or let the International Criminal Court have him. Saif al-Islam Gadhafi, like his father, was wanted by the ICC for alleged war crimes.

A thought for the day: Adlai Stevenson said, "... shouting is not a substitute for thinking and reason is not the subversion but the salvation of freedom."

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